Zoel was much, much, much larger than I had initially thought. We had already spent four days traveling at full speed, even at night, and yet Art still hadn’t found Artemis or reached Dracathea. According to him, if we kept this pace, we would reach Dracathea the next morning. This was concerning, since we hadn’t found Artemis yet.

During the trip, Art taught me many things I had never been able to learn in the palace, such as finding food in the wild, lighting a fire from just sticks, and even how to use a sword. About the last one, he said, “You should learn this since you always need me to save you.” That man—he always thinks he’s perfect, though he isn't wrong. He always ends up saving me. While I was trying onethe outfits Art had given me from the shop, he was buying food for the trip, which was the only reason we had been able to travel this far. We had food for another two days—three if we collected mushrooms from the ground.

(Crack. Crack.)

"Step down, Maria. We found them."

??!!!

We found them? Finally, Artemis was going home. I looked over a small bush and saw seven men dressed in black from head to toe. They held two blades each, and two of them were carrying Artemis.

“What are we going to do?” I asked Art, who was preparing his bow.

“Get your blade and be ready to protect yourself.”

“Eh?”

An arrow flew from his bow, hitting one of the two men carrying Artemis. Then he released another arrow, hitting the man who reacted the fastest.

“Get ready,” he said, drawing his blade. He made a defensive stance, parrying all the incoming attacks from the kidnappers. Meanwhile, I took action and ran toward Artemis. I cut the ropes binding her and helped her get up. We tried to escape, but the kidnappers attacked us, trying to capture us rather than hurt us.

“Run, Artemis!” I cried as I held the blade Art had given me, swinging it to keep the kidnappers away. Naturally, they disarmed me, but before they could capture me, another kidnapper shouted, “We got the girl again, let’s go!”

Art tried to catch them as they fled but failed. The kidnappers, one of them missing, jumped into a lake and never surfaced.

According to Art, there are caves beneath these lakes, so trying to catch them there would be useless. Instead, he removed the clothes of the kidnapper he had killed, revealing something shocking.

“Maria... I know who they are,” he said, clearly frightened.

“Who are they?”

“Do you see the crest on his neck?” he asked. “This dragon is the sigil of the Dracathean Royal Family.”

“The Royal Family...?” I asked, just beginning to realize how big this kidnapping plot really was.

“We have to move now,” Art said angrily. “Let's go and see what Diederik ( the King of Humans ) has to say about this.” He started walking toward the edge of Zoel.

---

???'s Perspective:

“We were sloppy.”

“We should be moving faster.”

“They got one of us.”

“SILENCE! Yes, we have to move faster, but we also need to change direction. They got one of us, so they must have seen the sigil. If they know, then we can’t go anywhere near the dragon. But it matters little, as they’ll slow down to talk to him while we move freely and reach Estella without them on our tail.”

“Boss, you're right. With someone as smart as you, they’ll never catch us. By the time they meet Stella and learn the actual truth, we’ll be long gone.”

“Genius, Boss!”

“Yes, amazing! Such a great mind!”

“Thank you, my followers. Let’s move now. If we wait too long, we might even run into them in Estella. And to be honest, I don’t think we can trust the woman who leads that city.”

“Yeah, a city led by a woman?”

“And one the age of the girls we kidnap?”

“I say they’re all full of crap.”

“Don’t be naive! If they have a woman as their leader, she must be exceptional. And I’m not talking about her beauty.”

“So exceptional, but she can’t stop the trafficking?”

“Well, we wouldn’t want her to stop it, would we?”

“No, I guess you’re right.”